There was a heated confrontation between two talented fighters Saturday night in Las Vegas, and we’re not talking about Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr.
UFC fighter Nate Diaz and Brendan Schaub, a former UFC heavyweight and current analyst, traded verbal jabs backstage at T-Mobile Arena after Mayweather defeated McGregor. The incident was captured on video, though it’s fairly difficult to understand what either fighter is saying.
So what was this all about, and what were they saying?
Well, in an appearance on the “Joe Rogan Experience” on Monday, Schaub said the altercation essentially boiled down to Diaz, who claimed McGregor didn’t perform well, calling out Schaub, who praised McGregor both before and after the fight.
“I’m going (to do a post-fight show) and I see Nate Diaz and he’s by himself on his phone,” Schaub told Rogan. “I see him and I think, same fraternity, UFC guys … I just figured, we’re brothers in arms here. So I see him and I’m like, ‘Yo Nate, bro, how about that fight, man? You’re next. Biggest fight in UFC history brother.’
“And he starts laughing. He’s like, ‘Aw hell no. How f—ing stupid do you look now? How stupid do you look, talking all this s—?’ And I’m like, ‘Woah, what are you doing right now? What the hell are you doing right now?’ And he keeps talking so I go, ‘Nate, he doesn’t look that stupid. He won rounds against the best boxer of all time.’ Then Nate’s like, ‘He didn’t win rounds. He gave him one round.’ “
That’s the nuts and bolts. But as you can see, the conversation devolved even further, with Diaz telling Schaub, “It’s all good though, it’s just your lack of knowledge.” Before the video cuts out, Diaz appears to go from moderately annoyed to downright heated, and Schaub knows why.
“This is the part I left out, this is what triggered him,” Schaub said. “I was talking and I literally couldn’t hear him and I was like, ‘Nate, use your words. I can’t understand a word you’re saying. Use. Your. Words.’ And he has that lisp or whatever so that probably set him off. But I have no issues with Nate.”
Let’s just hope Diaz is in the octagon and facing McGregor the next time he starts throwing punches.
Thumbnail photo via Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports Images
